Managing Central Queensland’s Clarke-Connors Range koala population: Predicting future koala road-kill hotspots

Koala road-kill data were analysed on a section of the Peak Downs Highway between Nebo and Eton from September 2014 to April 2018. The analysis was carried out on 81 records and ten koala road-kill blackspots (KRBs) were identified. The KRBs were associated with plant communites associated with high value koala habitat. E. tereticornis and E. crebra/drepanophylla were the most relevant species within this type of habitat. Moreover, these occur in relatively large areas of that habitat and where the habitat edge length per/ ha tends to increase. Plant communities that contain low quality koala habitat were not associated with high numbers of road-kills. There was no significant association found between parameters related to the road, driver visibility, speed limits and road width and KRBs. However, this needs to be investigated further. Overall, the modelling indicates that where a road traverses a landscape with large areas of high value koala habitat distributed in mosaics or reticulated networks, KRBs are likely to occur. However, the model can be improved by more detailed local floristic descriptions.